Venezuela Makes Final Preparations for Sunday's Municipal Elections

A campaign poster for Erika Farias, a pro-government candidate for mayor of Caracas' Libertador district, hangs in the Venezuelan capital. Venezuelans vote Sunday on 335 open mayoral seats.

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Venezuela Makes Final Preparations for Sunday's Municipal Elections

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CARACAS, VENEZUELA —

The Venezuela National Electoral Council is making final preparations for Sunday’s municipal elections, which are expected to tighten leftist President Nicolas Maduro's grip on the beleaguered South American nation.

State owned Corporación Venezolana de Televisión (Venezuelan Television Corporation— VTV) is reporting the National Electoral Council had installed about 99 percent of the voting stations.

Venezuelan official Tania D’Amelio, who is overseeing the process of installing voting machines, urged voters to trust the election process.

National Electoral Council chief Sandra Oblitas said voting materials had been distributed so Venezuelans could exercise their constitutional right at the polls Sunday.

"These electoral processes have been carried out amid threats and attacks by those who do not believe in voting as a tool to resolve political differences," Oblitas said in denouncing the boycott.

According to reports, officials from the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America have arrived in Venezuela to audit the elections.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition refused to put up candidates for the 335 open mayoral seats, saying it had no confidence in a fair vote. Coalition candidates had been expected to win more than half of Venezuela's 23 governorships in a mid-October ballot, but they claimed only five after irregularities – including last-minute shifts in polling places and a shortage of voting machines in anti-Maduro neighborhoods.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shown at the presidential palace in Caracas with a painting of independence hero Simon Bolivar, defends gubernatorial election results at a news conference Oct. 17, 2017.

Message to supporters

Maduro urged his supporters to go to the polls, saying another victory was necessary "to consolidate peace and recover prosperity." Venezuela was wracked earlier this year by violent political protests and suffers from ongoing, crippling shortages of food and medicine in the oil-rich country.

On Sunday, voters also must choose a new governor for western Zulia state. Opposition candidate Juan Pablo Guanipa's win in the October 15 election was annulled after he refused to pledge loyalty to the Constituent Assembly. The four other opposition winners promised their fealty to the pro-Maduro superlegislature, further fracturing the coalition.

With the mayoral elections, the ruling Socialist Party – which holds more than three-fourths of the seats – is likely to build its advantage. Of the remaining 76 mayors affiliated with the opposition, 13 have been arrested or are in exile.

That would give a broadened base of support to Maduro – elected in 2013 following the death of mentor Hugo Chavez – as he considers whether to seek another six-year term. Earlier this week, Venezuela officials threatened to halt presidential elections in 2018 unless the United States lifts financial sanctions it has imposed on Maduro and more than two dozen other government officials.